Before and After
by Silver Butterfly 111
Summary: Carlos considered time as a line where every event was related to the events that had come before it. Some moments were good, some bad, other moments- rare moments- could simply be described as perfect. (Spoilers for WTNV #100!)


**It finally happened! (*-*)**

* * *

Carlos considered the progression of time as a line, a series of events that were connected and interwoven and everything that happened to him was because of his previous actions, a line split into three categories: Past, present and future and two subcategories: Before and after. There had been a time before Night Vale and a time after. Whatever actions had led him to Night Vale. To this strange town with its strange phenomenon and it's even stranger inhabitants….one person in particular...He would gladly invent a time machine- however scientifically improbable they were- just so he could find the specific moment where the universe had decided to bring him to this little desert town….To Cecil...

He would gladly go back to the past, would even risk time paradox just so he could forget Cecil and have the experience of meeting him all over again.

Repeat the last five years of his life, over and over again minus being stuck in the Desert Otherworld- but he would even suffer that ordeal again if it would bring him back to this wonderful moment.

And all the other wonderful moments that had led up to this one. This slightly drunken, quiet contemplating after vows and wine and cake and before the rest of their lives.

The rest of his life.

The rest of Cecil's life.

The rest of _their_ lives together.

The scientist cast a glance across the banquet hall and his eyes fell upon the sight of Cecil standing on a chair trying to take down streamers while Janice held the back of the chair.

Janice felt him watching and rushed toward him, the wheels of her wheelchair spinning in a blur. Her grin a mile wide.

She almost ran over Carlos' feet before she was able to stop.

Carlos knelt down in front of her, mirroring her smile.

"You have cake on your face."

Janice looked at him for a second before she swiped at her cheek, serving to smear the bit of frosting into a streak across her face. "Did I get it?"

"Yep."

Janice brought the back of her hand to her mouth and started to lick the frosting off.

"It's good cake."

"I'm glad you approve."

Janice finished off her frosting and looked at Carlos.

"I have a secret to tell you."

Carlos leaned closer on cue.

Janice leaned closer as well, gripping the leather armrests of her wheelchair. Blue eyes shining.

"I knew you were going to ask him."

"Did you?"

Janice nodded, looking proud. "I found the ring in one of your lab coats. It's why I started calling you Uncle Carlos!"

"Looks like I need to find a new hiding spot."

"It helps if it's not as obvious."

"Thanks, I'll make a note on that for future reference when I start having to hide your birthday presents."

"And I'll start looking harder!"

"That's not fair."

"Better come up with a _really_ good hiding place then." Janice grabbed his hand and used her other hand to start spinning her wheelchair.

"That's going to take a while." Carlos observed. "That's okay, I'm used to pushing it, my arms get tired sometimes though."

"That doesn't sound fun at all."

"How do you make it fun?"

"You pretend the wheels have rockets on them."

"That's silly."

"That's the point." Carlos let go of Janice's hand and gave her a push.

The wheelchair glided halfway across the floor before coming to a stop besides the chair that Cecil was standing on.

Janice turned herself around. "Do it again."

Carlos' came to stand on the other side of Cecil's chair.

Cecil's hand came to rest on his shoulder as Cecil braced himself on Carlos in preparation to climb off said chair.

"Can you put _real_ rockets on my wheelchair!" Janice begged.

Carlos snapped his head toward Janice as Cecil shot a look at his niece- _their_ niece- that was equal parts panicked and amused.

"No." Carlos and Cecil objected in unison.

Janice pouted. "Grown-ups," she muttered.

Cecil chuckled and tossed the streamer he had in his hand at Janice.

It floated through the air and landed harmlessly in the girl's lap. Janice stuck her tongue out at him.

Cecil squeezed Carlos' shoulder again and Carlos inched closer, offering more support.

Once Cecil was on solid ground again and had regained his footing as best as he could given his mildly intoxicated state. Carlos made to step back until he felt a pressure on his ankle and took a step forward to stop the discomfort, only to stumble because of his own unsteady feet.

Cecil's hand was on his shoulder a second later. Steadying him.

Abby's voice echoed across the nearly empty banquet hall.

"Janice get off of Carlos' ankle, quit pestering them or they'll file a restraining order. Come on we need to go home, it's a school night."

"I don't want to go to school! Call and say I'm having an existential crisis."

"You had one of those last week, they'll start getting suspicious if you have more than three a month."

"Fine." Janice sighed. "I'm coming. Bye Uncle Cecil, Uncle Carlos!"

"Do you guys want a ride home?"

Cecil rolled his eyes, "We're fine Steve….thanks."

"We'll call you a cab." Abby called over her shoulder. "See you guys tomorrow."

An echo of a shutting door.

Silence settled around them.

* * *

"You're not going to fall over if I let go, are you?" Cecil questioned.

Carlos assessed his balance, taking into account the fact that his ankle wouldn't be at risk of getting crushed now that Janice was gone.

"You can let go."

Cecil lifted his hand away from Carlos' shoulder, watching him for a moment and once convinced that Carlos was indeed not going to fall he pulled out of Carlos' personal space and turned his focus to the task of collapsing the metal chairs.

Carlos stayed where he was, assessing the rest of the damage.

It could have been worse.

There were streamers scattered around the room, draped over chairs and half full wine glasses abandoned on the tables. He could start with those.

So the echos of glass against glass and the bang of the metal chairs replaced the temporary silence that had been there before, then it was just the sound of glass.

"Cecil?"

No response.

Carlos set down the glasses he'd picked up and turned to find his significant other sitting on a chair amid the ocean of streamers.

Cecil met his eyes from across the room, the look in those violet eyes was comprised of so many different emotions and those emotions were so profound and intertwined that they created an entirely different emotion Carlos didn't have a name for.

Carlos moved across the room, compelled as if Cecil's eyes had their own gravitational force.

"Cecil?"

The violet eyes blinked, misting over with tears, Cecil dropped his eyes to his hands- more specifically his left hand.

Carlos followed his gaze, stunned to see Cecil was trembling.

In the next moment Carlos was kneeling, and taking his significant other's hands within his own, trying to absorb the tremors into himself. To lessen the tiny shockwaves of emotion that raked Cecil's body.

"What's wrong?"

"Is….it...normal to feel scared?"

"I've been told that is a logical response to major life events….but do you want to explain to me _why_ you're scared?"

No other words made it into the air between them, it was a rare moment when Cecil couldn't form words to accurately express himself.

Carlos waited. Patience yielded better results when it came to everything in life.

"This town….isn't….safe and I worry about you, I've always worried about you and if something were to happen to you-"

"Don't use 'if '."

Cecil froze at his tone. Froze enough that his shaking hands stilled inside of Carlos' own. Carlos knew it was highly likely that Cecil had even stopped breathing for a moment. At least he wasn't shaking anymore.

"I'm just being logical."

"Well stop it, logic is _my_ job."

A shaky breath, the beginning of a laugh Cecil pulled his hands out from Carlos' and folded them one over the other, resting them on his knee.

"What if this wasn't such a good idea?"

Carlos breathed a sigh. There was 'if' again.

"Okay, you want to ask 'if ' questions? We'll ask 'if ' questions."

Cecil unfolded his hands and laid them flat, twisting his wedding band around his finger in what was clearly already becoming a nervous gesture.

" _If_ I were to ask you to marry me again, would you have said no seeing as how you seem so unsure about it now?"

Cecil's fingers froze, but he still refused to lift his eyes off of his left hand.

"Of course, I would still say yes, I would say yes to you as many times as you asked."

"Then this was a good idea, it was the most brilliant idea I've had in my entire life."

"I, just- worry about you, you almost died before we really got to know each other and I fell apart _then_...if something like that were to happen to you _now_ …"

"I would haunt you, and it would be extremely annoying."

"I'm being serious, Carlos, promise me you won't do any unnecessary heroics."

"I'm not a hero, I'm a scientist."

"...You think those things are different, but I consider them the same." Cecil still seemed incapable of looking at Carlos, at looking at anything except the band of silver that wrapped around his finger as if he was having trouble comprehending the fact that it was there.

Carlos felt something inside him break and rebuild itself.

"Would you quit looking at the sparkly, superheated piece of carbon? It's not going to disappear."

The visible part of Cecil's mouth twitched upward.

Carlos felt his own mouth twitch in response. It was a scientific fact that smiles were contagious. "Look at _me_ ," Carlos whispered, placing two fingers under Cecil's chin to lift it. "Nothing is going to happen to me and I'm not going to leave you. We are going to be _fine,_ we have always been fine."

" 'A scientist is always fine.'"

"I didn't say scientist, I said _we._ "

"We are always fine." Cecil repeated. Carlos let his lips twitch again as he leaned in to kiss Cecil's forehead, "I like the sound of that better anyway." Carlos admitted with a whisper against Cecil's skin, pulling away a second later to find a genuine smile on Cecil's face.

Carlos stood and kicked at the streamers. "Now that I've pulled you away from the brink of an emotional breakdown, you can help me finish cleaning up so it doesn't look like a war zone in here."

Genuine laughter finally escaped from Cecil. "This so called 'war zone' has an obvious lack of blood and injured bodies."

"I was trying to dramatically exaggerate in order to make a point."

"Dramatically exaggerating to make a point, my dear Carlos, is _my_ job." Cecil teased, rising from the chair and kicking its legs inward so it collapsed.

"We could switch places for a day, Since we're obviously so fantastic at doing the other's job. " Carlos teased."You wouldn't last a day, Station Management would kill you, sweetheart."

"You would blow up the lab."

"Then, it is in both of our best interests to stop talking about this. I won't die, you won't get murdered by Station Management and all your scientific research won't go up in flames. Win-win situation. I didn't say yes to marrying you just so we could make a silly bet and end up dying. That wouldn't make The Story About Us very interesting."

Cecil closed the small space between them and placed his own brief kiss on Carlos' lips. He tasted like wine and cake frosting.

Cecil looked very pleased with himself. "You taste like cake. Which is weird because I know what was in that cake and you wouldn't think that any of those ingredients would taste good together but it works."

"Cecil, you're rambling."

"I am _not_ rambling-"

"Only guilty people deny so quickly."

"I just want to know _how_ it's possible that cake _didn't_ kill someone."

Carlos shrugged. "Witchcraft?"

"What is this, no scientific explanation?! You're clearly more intoxicated than I thought."

"I'm going to stop trying to analyze life so much, some moments can't be scientifically explained and I'm okay with that."

"Well okay then Mr. 'Live in the Moment'. I was going to suggest we go to Svitz, because I'm pretty sure it's got it's own weird time paradox thing going on but you'll probably get bored seeing as you've already investigated that kind of thing here in Night Vale…...So I guess we'll just have to go somewhere else for the honeymoon."

"You're using reverse psychology on me."

"No."

"You're horrible at lying, Europe sounds perfect."

Carlos considered the progression of time as a line, a series of events that were connected and interwoven. That line could be split into three categories past, present, future, and two subcategories: Before and after.

Now that he had Cecil he wouldn't focus on the before as much, right now as far as he was concerned the past didn't exist. Just now- this moment- and every perfectly imperfect moment that would follow after.

* * *

 **Happy New Year! Everyone!**


End file.
